Gingrich Praises Clinton, Thinks She’ll Run In 2016

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich granted CapTon a brief one-on-one (I would say “sit down,” but he was actually standing on the sidewalk) after his lunchtime rally in Buffalo today, during which he praised his onetime nemesis, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and said he would be “very surprised” if she doesn’t run for president again in 2016.

Gingrich, who made a brief stop in the Queen City for an event organized and hosted by his biggest upstate supporter, Buffalo businessma Carl Paladino, didn’t have too much to say about Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (Perhaps that’s because Cuomo’s 2010 opponent, Paladino, was standing within earshot?)

He did say, however, that any governor of New York is a potential presidential contender because it “comes with the job.” But suggested Cuomo shouldn’t get too comfortable.

“I have a hunch he would be running against another New York candidate in 2016…like Hillary Clinton,” Gingrich said.

“I’ll be very surprised if she doesn’t end up running in 2016…I think Secretary Clinton ought to do what she concludes is best for her and serving the country. She’s a very competent and very smart person who works very, very hard.”

During the 1990s, Gingrich and Clinton were arch enemies. He led the impeachment charge against her president husband and helped derail her ambitious yet ill-fated push for health care reform.

But by 2005, after Clinton had been in the US Senate for five years, the relationship had come full circle. Gingrich and Hillary Clinton actually teamed up to promote health care legislation, and he started talking up her prospects as a 2008 White House contender. At the time, he called her “very practical” and “very smart and very hard working” and said he had been “very struck working with her.”

Also during my short chat with Gingrich, the long-shot candidate refused to commit to ending his campaign before Republicans convene in Tampa for their convention, even though he told attendees at the state GOP dinner last night that he would support Mitt Romney when (as it appears now to be a foregone conclusion) he becomes the nominee.